The NFL is BACK!
Comments (3) Another season of the Raiders being picked by everyone as the “dark horse team on the rise” and going nowhere.
Another season of making predictions and having those predictions make me look like a complete idiot, publicly.
And you know what? I couldn’t be happier.
I was always expecting the lockout to get resolved before the season started, unlike the NBA lockout, which I fully expect to result in many games lost, if not the entire season. Figuring out how to share billions and billions of dollars isn’t easy, but compared to the alternative of sharing nothing… there never really was an alternative.
But even if I “knew” there’d be football, actually hearing it become official made me really happy. It made me realize how much I’d miss the game if it was gone. This sounds odd; why would anyone need reminding of how much they’d miss football?
Well, for the last seven years, I’ve treated covering the NFL like business. When I first started writing my newsletter back in 2004, it was when I still had very real dreams and aspirations of becoming a sports writer and broadcaster someday. Then, I got the stupid idea after a few good seasons that I was GOOD at picking games, and could maybe find a niche doing that.
But that wasn’t the case, because my predictions generally suck. And year in and year out, I get so frustrated, because I put so much effort into my predictions and writing my newsletter only to be consistently average. I always thought if I worked hard enough, I’d do well, and maybe that would lead to getting a job in the sports writing/broadcasting world. But ironically, I’ve progressively gotten worse over the years; seems that the more I know about these teams, the worse I am at predicting their outcomes.
So to be honest, a tiny part of me was wishing football would take a year off. I’m sick of having my team (the Raiders) break my heart, and I’m sick of being angry when a game of chance doesn’t go my way.
But the lockout being lifted made me appreciate the “return” of football, and reflecting on it made me realize my true love of the game. I don’t spend hours upon hours writing my newsletter every week and handicapping games because I HAVE to or because I really think it will amount to anything; I do it because I love the game. I love the strategy, I love the execution, I love how the whole game can change on one play and that on any given day one team can beat another.
I don’t care if the Raiders go 0-16. I want to spend every one of those games on my couch rooting them on. I want to watch two random teams duke it out every Sunday and Monday night.
I want to be frustrated every week. Because compared to the alternative… well, there never really was an alternative.
